The Pythons would almost certainly be lambasted today as the epitome of white male privilege. \u201cI can\u2019t really address what it\u2019s like to be young and think differently,\u201d Idle says, \u201cexcept to say that being old is like being a ghost in somebody else\u2019s life. Almost everything you do feels like it\u2019s from a different world.\u201d He thinks women are \u201coften funnier\u201d than men, he adds. He was responsible in his presidency of Footlights in 1964-65 for opening up the club to both sexes, 20 years before his college, Pembroke, even admitted females to study.<\/p>\n
Idle moved to Los Angeles more than 30 years ago, although he\u2019d spent a lot of time in the US in the 1970s. Partying and sleeping around had led to the break-up of his first marriage. How did he bring to an end what, in his memoir, he called his \u201crelentless pursuit of women\u201d. He laughs. \u201cI relented. You go, \u2018What the f—? I don\u2019t even know this person\u2019s name.\u2019 I had six weeks on the beach in Barbados, and I just changed my life. I stopped eating meat. I stopped the serial shagging and chasing [of] women. I\u2019d become a \u2018shagnasty\u2019, as the Beatles would call it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the cocaine era. \u201cIt got everybody. It went into rock \u2019n\u2019 roll first, and then executives, and the music business and film business, and it sort of confused everybody. It\u2019s not a good drug.\u201d Did he partake? \u201cOf course. It was the Seventies. Did I know what I know now? No.\u201d<\/p>\n
He saw later how it affected friends such as Robin Williams. \u201cYou can\u2019t be funny on drugs, really\u2026 In the 1970s and 1980s, you can only explain some of the films they made by understanding that they\u2019re all on f—ing cocaine. And that\u2019s where the budget went too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Idle is no fan of the incumbent US president, with whom he crossed paths long before Trump entered politics. \u201cWe met him a few times up in New York, and he was always an a—-le beyond belief. He\u2019s a person you hated instantly. There was no question about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a vain, mad f—er. They\u2019ve got to get rid of him. I mean, I couldn\u2019t imagine America losing so much prestige in one year. They\u2019ve lost the leadership of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day he says more mad things. He\u2019s not well. He needs locking up.\u201d (Idle might want to watch his words. \u201cI\u2019m English,\u201d he admits. \u201cI\u2019m not American. I don\u2019t have a green card. They can throw me out any time.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Idle prefers to look on the bright side. He\u2019s hoping that Spamalot may return to Britain in 2027. Fans of his brilliant Beatles spoof band, the Rutles, will also be delighted to hear that he\u2019s bringing them back next year. \u201cI thought we\u2019d have the 49th anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pythons would almost certainly be lambasted today as the epitome of white male privilege. \u201cI can\u2019t really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,67489,457,447,9771,2331,459090,134,38211,156,14059,275075],"class_list":["post-889382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-authors","tag-books","tag-celebrities","tag-comedy","tag-culture","tag-culture-editors-choice","tag-entertainment","tag-spine","tag-standard","tag-top-story","tag-us-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}